The desecration began in earnest this week. On Monday, everything was normal but by last night the entire building was cordoned off by construction fences and, after sneaking inside, I discovered that all 12,000+ seats were already gone and wall frames had already been erected around the entire concourse.
All in the name of creating recruiting bling in the form of an indoor football practice facility in order to attract future Obama, Carver, Douglass and MLK high school graduates with inflated GPA's higher than their SAT scores (to justify admittance) and whose proper conjugation of the verb to be remains optional.
I lived in the Midwest when I watched on TV as Charlie Scott hit a jumper at the buzzer to beat Lefty Driesell's Davidson team in the regional final (uninformed people know it as the Elite Eight now) 87-85 at Cole in 1969. What an awesome shot and awesome venue. Lefty's next game as a coach would be in CFH again but this time as the Terps' coach a season later. That year later I had moved to College Park and I've gotten to see Cole Field House almost every day since and I still never underestimate the historical significance of the place.
Two NCAA semifinals (Final Four) were staged there including one that spawned a Disney movie (Glory Road) and another that came in the middle of UCLA's seven year championship streak. We hung outside of that 1970 semifinal in hopes of landing tickets to Saturday's final. No luck.
I did see many games there, including the Elmore/McMillen/Lucas teams and my high school and former high school coach winning the state championship on a desperation heave by future Navy star Vernon Butler at the buzzer to beat Len Bias's nearby Northwestern high school. I watched through the south goal's backboard as David Thompson rose to near rim level and dropped in the game winner at the buzzer to beat Maryland and Lefty -- again, 87-85 -- in the first ever Super Bowl Sunday college basketball special in 1973 (coincidentally, last night was the anniversary date of that game). There were also the east coast indoor track meets featuring the likes of Ivory Crockett and Steve Prefontaine vs Marty Liquori. And, of course, many infamous concert events from the 1970's, including Elvis and a Grand Funk Railroad riot.
47 years after hiring Lefty and watching the basketball program immediately rise to financial orbital heights and never come back down to Earth, they still haven't figure out that repeating that strategy with the football team might not have warranted such a blasphemous move as to wipe out all of that history.
I'm sure they will sell the seats to the highest bidders, many of whom probably have no real clue of the history it represents.
At least I managed to trash pick the back of one of those seats that a disgruntled student ripped out of there and discarded along a sidewalk behind the place when final exams were being administered there last month. He gets an A in my book.
All in the name of creating recruiting bling in the form of an indoor football practice facility in order to attract future Obama, Carver, Douglass and MLK high school graduates with inflated GPA's higher than their SAT scores (to justify admittance) and whose proper conjugation of the verb to be remains optional.
I lived in the Midwest when I watched on TV as Charlie Scott hit a jumper at the buzzer to beat Lefty Driesell's Davidson team in the regional final (uninformed people know it as the Elite Eight now) 87-85 at Cole in 1969. What an awesome shot and awesome venue. Lefty's next game as a coach would be in CFH again but this time as the Terps' coach a season later. That year later I had moved to College Park and I've gotten to see Cole Field House almost every day since and I still never underestimate the historical significance of the place.
Two NCAA semifinals (Final Four) were staged there including one that spawned a Disney movie (Glory Road) and another that came in the middle of UCLA's seven year championship streak. We hung outside of that 1970 semifinal in hopes of landing tickets to Saturday's final. No luck.
I did see many games there, including the Elmore/McMillen/Lucas teams and my high school and former high school coach winning the state championship on a desperation heave by future Navy star Vernon Butler at the buzzer to beat Len Bias's nearby Northwestern high school. I watched through the south goal's backboard as David Thompson rose to near rim level and dropped in the game winner at the buzzer to beat Maryland and Lefty -- again, 87-85 -- in the first ever Super Bowl Sunday college basketball special in 1973 (coincidentally, last night was the anniversary date of that game). There were also the east coast indoor track meets featuring the likes of Ivory Crockett and Steve Prefontaine vs Marty Liquori. And, of course, many infamous concert events from the 1970's, including Elvis and a Grand Funk Railroad riot.
47 years after hiring Lefty and watching the basketball program immediately rise to financial orbital heights and never come back down to Earth, they still haven't figure out that repeating that strategy with the football team might not have warranted such a blasphemous move as to wipe out all of that history.
I'm sure they will sell the seats to the highest bidders, many of whom probably have no real clue of the history it represents.
At least I managed to trash pick the back of one of those seats that a disgruntled student ripped out of there and discarded along a sidewalk behind the place when final exams were being administered there last month. He gets an A in my book.
